jjjalljs
@jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
- Comment on Scientists have been studying remote work for four years and have reached a very clear conclusion: “Working from home makes us thrive” 7 hours ago:
Time to repeat my topical story.
I worked for a startup that prided itself on being “data driven”. They’d talk about how other startups were doing stupid things because they followed their feelings instead of data.
One day in one of those all hands meetings, the CEO was taking questions. Someone said, “Studies are showing that four day work weeks are more effective on like every metric. Can we look into that?”
The CEO said "No, we’re not doing that ". Didn’t read the linked studies. Didn’t entertain it at all. His mind was made up, and the data was irrelevant.
Because he doesn’t really care about data. He cares about feeling smart and irreverent. He cares about being seen as a cool disruptive startup guy who’s going to grind his way to success.
The dishonesty makes me want to puke.
But you know what also makes me sick? All the sycophantic boot lickers that would gather round and tell him his every idea was great. The people who would work unpaid long hours to “get shit done”. Bunch of fucking wormtongues who would sell out their coworkers for crumbs.
Maybe he was a real person once who really did care about data. But by the time I met him, he was an empty suit
- Comment on Scientists have been studying remote work for four years and have reached a very clear conclusion: “Working from home makes us thrive” 7 hours ago:
The money isn’t the whole point. It’s also about control and emotions. Management wants to feel a way and they’ll pay for it. And/or make you pay for it
- Comment on Generative AI is a societal disaster 2 days ago:
Sometimes I feel like everyone who would care already knows , and everyone who doesn’t care won’t care no matter what the facts say.
You could prove definitively that LLMs summon demons that eat live babies, and they’d shrug and dismiss it.
- Comment on Banana 4 days ago:
What’s with the weird censoring of the post metadata? Do we not want to credit the original poster for some reason?
- Comment on Has anyone noticed these new spam techniques used by music channels on youtube? 1 week ago:
I’ve enjoyed bandcamp’s writeups. They seem to be written by real people.
I also sometimes peruse the “who else bought my favorite album this month?” listing. Find some gems and wild cards there.
- Comment on No One Wants A $100 GTA 6, Analysts Say 1 week ago:
I think most people don’t have much impulse control or long term planning. They’ll buy it at full price despite having a backlog of other games
- Comment on ‘I realised I’d been ChatGPT-ed into bed’: how ‘Chatfishing’ made finding love on dating apps even weirder 2 weeks ago:
1d4-1 is 0 to 3. Sorry, not the point.
One factor might be location. I’m in a major city.
- Comment on ‘I realised I’d been ChatGPT-ed into bed’: how ‘Chatfishing’ made finding love on dating apps even weirder 2 weeks ago:
What do you mean exactly? If you think some people are just innately attractive and that’s immutable and unattainable, that’s nonsense.
Easily changed stuff like a better haircut, better fitting clothes, a better photo, all go a long way.
I’m a very average guy with a wardrobe of thrift store finds and band tshirts. I’m not even 6’ tall. But I did try to whole-ass engage with every potential match instead of doing bullshit like chatgpt or copy-pasted ice breakers.
Also a real fast way to be unattractive is having an ugly worldview. Most people aren’t going to like someone who treats them like shit. Someone who has a genuine conversation and shares interests will go farther.
- Comment on ‘Death to Spotify’: the DIY movement to get artists and fans to quit the music app 2 weeks ago:
I started buying music in 2015 (mostly Bandcamp) and I have no regrets. I have a big library now of drm free music. Some months I spend nothing and still enjoy music, without ads.
- Comment on For a while Microsoft was the King of PC stuff. How come they didn't just cozy up to the PC but had to do the XBOX and pretty much lose their ass with all the cash grabs? 2 weeks ago:
I just assume big businesses are run by idiots.
If Microsoft had their shit together, they could’ve made something like Steam. That’s just printing money.
- Comment on And they mocked me for my WoW subscription 😗 2 weeks ago:
I saw Castle Rat in Brooklyn the other day (great show) and it was like $25 + $10 of bs “fees”.
I don’t see many bigger bands anymore because the tickets are more than double that.
- Comment on ‘I realised I’d been ChatGPT-ed into bed’: how ‘Chatfishing’ made finding love on dating apps even weirder 2 weeks ago:
to meet the man she’d spent the last three weeks opening up to.
First off, don’t chat for three weeks before a date. That’s a terrible idea. You’re going to build up a faulty model of who they are and then be jolted when you meet them in real life. Which is exactly what happened here.
Second, to all the people using chat gpt, I don’t know how to say this nicely but fucking git gud. What a bunch of sad sacks that can’t have a conversation, can’t read a wikipedia article, can’t even try their honest best.
a workaround for what he sees as the coded jargon of modern dating. “Like, what do you mean ‘What’s my attachment style?’” he balks. “Every girl on the apps has this thing about ‘love languages’ – it’s just gibberish
Is it though? Take five minutes to read about it if it’s so ubiquitous. What a sack of shit.
I’m a pretty average guy and I was getting 1d4-1 dates per week just by matching with people and asking them out. You really don’t need to do more than be genuine, present, and interested in them.
- Comment on Who's your favorite female protagonist in a video game? (Add pic of character in response) 2 weeks ago:
None of the guys at my old job liked lae’zel. I think because she’s kind of mean. I’m like that’s what I’m here for. I don’t want some pushover passive aggression like shadow heart, and karlach is fine I guess, but lae’zel making people lick her boots is the shit. I’m not even into being dominated but I do like women with agency.
- Comment on Former Finnish Prime Minister Calls for Four-Day Workweek: More Time with Family 2 weeks ago:
Reminds me of a thing from work that I think about pretty often.
I worked someplace that prided itself on being “data driven”. They put stuff on the company tshirts like “Data > Feelings”. Real pretentious shit, but they seemed to pride themselves on making reasonable decisions based on facts and evidence. They’d made fun of other companies for doing stuff based on the whims of CEOs.
One of the many articles came out about 4 day workweeks being beneficial for everyone involved. At one of the company meetings, someone brought it up and asked the CEO if we could look into it. He just said, “We’re not doing that.” Didn’t ask to read the article. Didn’t look at data. No discussion. Just a snap decision: no.
People are emotional creatures and many of them are stupid, too. Stupid and spiteful.
- Comment on RUMOR: 'The Future of Xbox is Software Publishing' as Next Console Generation Faces Doubts 3 weeks ago:
I don’t think Microsoft makes great decisions. They’re not as bad as Google, but it doesn’t seem like they deliver what users want.
They’ll probably spend billions on AI when users would rather just have a cheaper longer lasting device. But they gotta make maximum money, I guess.
- Comment on what's a good answer to placate the c-suite if you're accused of lacking motivation and being unfriendly? 3 weeks ago:
No one would go if they weren’t getting paid.
I don’t know I’ve met some boot lickers that would work for free.
- Comment on Vampire Survivors-like Megabonk makes megabucks, selling a million copies in 2 weeks, and currently has more daily players than Borderlands 4 on Steam 3 weeks ago:
I keep forgetting borderlands 4 even came out. I guess I block most ads, but none of my friends have even talked about it.
- Comment on Opera wants you to pay $19.90 per month for its new AI browser 3 weeks ago:
I can’t imagine what I’d even want the “Ai” to do in the browser.
- Comment on Xbox consoles are now getting a fullscreen Xbox Game Pass Ultimate ad at boot, just a day after a 50% price hike was announced 3 weeks ago:
You can turn that one on desktop off, btw
- Comment on If A.I. is so fast and efficient, and CEOs are paid so much, why not replace CEOs with A.I.? 3 weeks ago:
Apparently Vanguard has a whole proxy voting system that I left on the defaults!
- Comment on If A.I. is so fast and efficient, and CEOs are paid so much, why not replace CEOs with A.I.? 3 weeks ago:
Solidarity doesn’t have to mean they like have a club with a secret handshake. Their goals are aligned, and they tend to work towards those goals, even without explicit coordination. It’s rare to see anyone in the ownership class work against those interests. You don’t see a lot of the owners saying “we should give people more time off” or “we should let the workers have a say”. It’s pretty consistently “we should squeeze people for more money”. It makes the news when ownership is like “We’re going to pay people more”, and it doesn’t make the news when labor is like “i’ll just work a little more off the clock to catch up”.
Contrast with labor, where people are often undermining their interests. Being anti-union, voting against regulations that would protect them from exploitation, giving away labor for free.
- Comment on If A.I. is so fast and efficient, and CEOs are paid so much, why not replace CEOs with A.I.? 3 weeks ago:
Solidarity doesn’t mean they’re all in love and never squabble. But it does mean that they will prioritize their class’ interests, especially if it’s in conflict with labor.
- Comment on If A.I. is so fast and efficient, and CEOs are paid so much, why not replace CEOs with A.I.? 3 weeks ago:
I assume rich people often keep enough shares to control who sits on the board, and thus who is the CEO. There’s a lot of people sitting on multiple boards, folks know each other, blah blah blah.
Also many shareholders aren’t really involved. I don’t even know how it works if you own shares through Vanguard or something. I’ve never been asked to vote on company policy.
From what I’ve seen in start-up land, leadership is a lot of in-group bro times. It’s all gut feel. Shouldn’t expect rational, honest, decisions from them.
- Comment on If A.I. is so fast and efficient, and CEOs are paid so much, why not replace CEOs with A.I.? 3 weeks ago:
The rich have class solidarity. They’re not going to casually fuck each other over like that.
- Comment on "I’m Canceling My Subscription": Xbox Players Call to "Boycott" Game Pass "Hard" Over 50% Price Increase As Microsoft’s Website Crashes from Mass Cancellations 3 weeks ago:
It was always going to end like this. If you’re surprised, I hope you learned a valuable lesson.
- Comment on Former BioWare lead writer reads the runes on EA-Saudi deal and speculates that 'guns and football' are in, 'gay stuff' is out, and the venerable RPG studio may be for the chop 3 weeks ago:
I know plenty of adults who are really bad at money and paying bills.
- Comment on Former BioWare lead writer reads the runes on EA-Saudi deal and speculates that 'guns and football' are in, 'gay stuff' is out, and the venerable RPG studio may be for the chop 3 weeks ago:
I feel like the average video game player has really poor media and political literacy, but maybe it’s just the ones who make noise online who fit that profile.
- Comment on Is anyone NOT steaming their Music? 3 weeks ago:
I typically buy music , most often from Bandcamp. I figure $10/mo gets me one or two albums I can keep forever. I tend to be more depth-first with music, where I get really into a band for a little while then move on, so this works for me.
- Comment on New EA Owners Hoping AI Will Cut Costs And Boost Profits, It's Claimed 4 weeks ago:
One of the many things that’s infuriating about this is that these people are so profoundly stupid, but they keep getting all the money and power. If there was any justice in the world, people like the decision makers in your stories would be living a very spartan life somewhere, reflecting on how they are so fucking senseless.
And yet people continue to worship these “job creators” and “visionaries”.
- Comment on whatever happened to in-store coffee grinders? 4 weeks ago:
I think two of the somewhat fancier grocery stores I go to have grinders there. The more basic one I usually go to I don’t think does. I don’t drink coffee myself, so I’m not 100% certain.